Northern San Juan
AvalancheColin Mitchell · Apr 13, 2020 · Northern San Juan
Weather
Cool, breezy and sunny. Gusty northwest winds were occasionally moving a skiff of snow, but very little transport observed.
Snowpack
36 hours of below freezing temperatures has locked up the snowpack on the top of the pass. The upper layer at the top of the pass was a supportable melt-freeze crust over frozen melt forms with ice masses around a foot thick. Yesterday's snow had largely disappeared along the corridor, either melting or settling into the existing snowpack. HS on Red Mountain Pass has dropped 8" in the past 9 days, despite yesterday's 4" or so of new snow. The Brooklyns are still holding a couple of feet of snow where they haven't run to the ground, and still have the potential to reach the road in places, particularly 'D' which did not run at all last week. The center of Blue Point was cleaned out to the ground with last week's mitigation, but the base stake is still at 120". The Monument stake has been at 0 for at least a few days, and the Gorge is mostly melted out. Mother Cline is still holding some snow, but getting thin, and several areas have cleaned out to the ground. Upper East Riverside still has plenty of snow, but avalanches large enough to overwhelm the shed are unlikely.
Avalanche
No new activity in highway paths or surrounding terrain